


Turning the Tide

by RedOrchid



Series: Episode remixes, missing scenes and fix-its [9]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Battle Couple, Episode Remix, Episode: s02e01 This Guilty Blood, Fix-It, M/M, Parabatai Bond, canon-divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 01:25:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13156236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/pseuds/RedOrchid
Summary: Instead of going back to the Institute and getting himself benched, Alec goes after Jace on his own, with Magnus’ help.(S02E01 canon-divergence)





	Turning the Tide

**Author's Note:**

> A belated Christmas gift for @only-1-a, who sent me this bunny a couple of months back. The bunny turned from angsty hurt/comfort to more of an action fix-it with extra feels mixed in while in transit, though. It might not even be a bunny anymore. Maybe it's a kitten. OH WELL. It still has Alec kicking ass and Magnus helping him save the day. *wraps in bows and hands over" :D?

Alec’s laid out on Magnus’ couch, taking deep and even breaths as he steels himself for what’s coming. Magnus is standing above him, and Alec can tell from how Magnus, too, is trying to regulate his breathing, that he’s still worried about using Alec’s  _ parabatai _ bond to track Jace this way. Alec feels the worry too—he remembers the pain of the last time he did this all too well, knows the risk he’s taking in putting his and Jace’s bond through it again, when it’s already been weakened.

Still, if there’s even the smallest chance it might work, he can’t not take it. The hollow ache in his gut feels like it’s trying to eat away at everything inside of him. He can’t sleep, can’t work, can’t even fucking  _ think _ properly, and if he doesn’t do this, then—he’s honestly scared of what else he might attempt. 

Above him, Magnus clears his throat.

“All right, Alec. Ready to track your  _ parabatai _ ?”

Alec turns his head and looks up at him, nodding once in confirmation before taking another deep breath, letting the air out slowly to will his racing pulse to calm back down.

There’s a crackle of energy as Magnus summons his magic, and then blue mist is forming in his hands, flowing down toward Alec and seeping into his skin. Alec immediately feels the magic take effect; his skin tingles as the mist first touches it, and then grows cool and numb as the magic spreads.

He raises himself up a little, bringing his stele down to hover over his  _ parabatai _ rune. His free hand forms into a fist on instinct, his body readying itself for the searing pain Alec knows is coming. He shakes it out, trying to force himself to relax. Tells himself to get a grip and get the bad part over with.

He clears his mind as best he’s able, pulling memories of Jace to the front and shutting out everything else.

And then he feels it. It’s a small sensation, hardly more than a flicker, but at the same time, the difference it makes is like night and day. The unsettling silence in his body stops; his heart races for a moment before finding a sure, steady beat; everything within him seems to just—shift a fraction to the side and then settle back into itself.

“What just happened?” Magnus asks, pulling Alec back to the present. “Did it start?”

“I don’t need to,” Alec replies, dazed, before the implications of what he’s feeling fully hit him. “I sense him. He’s on land.”

He gets up from the couch and grabs his shirt, puts it back on with quick fingers. He’s back in full gear and on his way out the door moments later, Magnus close on his heels as they exit the building.

“So where are we going?” Magnus asks, as Alec puts a hand over his rune and closes his eyes, focusing on what direction the bond is pulling him in.

“I don’t know, but he’s close.  _ Really _ close. I think—no more than half a dozen blocks or so.”

“That’s here in Brooklyn.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think he managed to escape from Valentine? Is he trying to make his way here to the loft?” 

“I don’t know. I just—”

“You’ve got to find him. I know,” Magnus replies. “And we will, Alexander. Just focus and lead the way.”

Alec nods and closes his eyes again. Left. He wants to go left. He gestures for Magnus to follow him, and together they set off down the street at a brisk walk.

They find what they’re looking for only a couple of minutes later. As they turn the last corner, they see Jace standing in the middle of the street about fifty yards away, his seraph blade pressed to the throat of a wild-looking vampire in a blood-soaked white dress. Valentine is next to them as well, a swirling portal hanging open in the air behind him. Alec ducks behind a dumpster to avoid being seen. His hand goes to the strap of his quiver, willing it into existence. He draws an arrow from it and nocks it to his bow, carefully taking aim.

“Wait,” Magnus says quietly, stopping Alec from taking the shot with a hand on his shoulder. “Let me get into position to block that portal before we advance. Cut off Valentine’s escape.”

Alec gives him a nod in reply, and then puts his focus back to the scene in front of him. He doesn’t like what he’s seeing one bit—whatever the vampire is saying to Jace is clearly succeeding in winding him up. Alec lowers his bow and takes his stele out of his pocket, activating his hearing rune.

“You don’t know anything about me,” he hears Jace say.

“I know you’re weak,” the vampire retorts. “I can smell it. And you’ll do whatever the Clave tells you to do. Now, get off me!”

“Jonathan,” Valentine says, and even from the distance, Alec balks at the smug look on his face. “Are you going to let her mock you after what she did?”

Jace renews his hold on the vampire, and Alec makes a decision. His first arrow hits the vampire in the stomach, making her drop to the pavement. The second narrowly misses Valentine, who dodges the shot to his thigh just in time.

“Alec!” Jace turns, relief and shock mingling on his face. The vampire tries to take advantage of the situation, leaping off the ground with unnatural speed, her fangs elongating as she aims for Jace’s throat.

Alec shoots her before impact, an arrow to the heart causing her to explode in a shower of sparks. And then he runs forward, vanishing his bow and drawing his seraph blade as he zeroes in on Valentine.

“Mom! No!” Clary’s voice suddenly rings through the air, thick with panic.

Alec turns his head towards the sound and spots Jocelyn with a crossbow in her hands. His brain makes a quick calculation of the expected trajectory, and his body changes course on instinct, getting him to Jace just in time.

The arrow hits him in the shoulder, pain exploding through him as he tackles Jace and they both hit the ground. There are several voices calling his name, and then bright red light hurling past him, followed by more shouting and the sound of running feet.

“Alec!” Jace’s voice comes again, “Alec, get up, come on.”

“Where’s Va—” he manages, and then cries out again, pain radiating down his arm and torso when he moves.

“Keep him still, so that I can get the arrow out.” Magnus’ voice. Alec does what he can to help, clenching his teeth against the pain as Jace pushes him into a sitting position. “Take a deep breath and try to relax for me, Alexander.”

“Magnus knocked him out before he could get to the portal,” Jace answers Alec’s unfinished question as Magnus goes to work. “Simon is sitting on him; he’s not going anywhere.”

“He’ll wake up when and where I want him to,” Magnus confirms. Familiar blue magic pour out of his hands, and Alec slumps towards him in relief when the pain dulls to something more manageable. 

He reaches up and covers Magnus’ hand with his own, squeezing it in quiet thanks as more of the cool, pain-relieving magic flows into his wound. The arrow dissolves into nothing, and then Jace is there as well, pulling the collar of Alec’s shirt to the side to get as close to the wound as possible with his stele. The whole thing takes less than a minute.

“You should have a medic check the wound when you get back to the Institute,” Magnus tells him, as he helps Alec to his feet. “Just to make sure it doesn’t get infected.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Jace says. “Clary can call for backup while we prepare Valentine for transit; we’ll have a team here in less than ten minutes, and then—”

“And then you can’t be here,” Alec realises with a start, the memory of just why he went to Magnus to ask for help in the first place crashing back down on him. “There’s a new Head of the Institute. A guy from the Clave named Aldertree. He put a price on your head.”

“He what?”

“He thinks you’re working with Valentine,” Alec says. “So until we can prove your innocence—”

“I should keep myself off his radar,” Jace finishes for him. “Right.”

“There’s also the small issue that your mother is apparently trying to kill you,” Magnus says. “If Alec hadn’t been here to save you, she might have succeeded.”

All three of them look over to where Jocelyn lies unconscious on the ground, Clary by her side, speaking to her quietly as she cards her fingers through her mother’s hair.

“Do you know of somewhere he could go?” Alec asks Magnus. “Somewhere he can’t be tracked?”

“A couple of places. But they’re all serving as safe houses for Downworlders right now. I can’t exactly drop a Shadowhunter into the mix; trust me when I say that it wouldn’t end well.”

“Yeah, no. I can see that.”

“I can put a cloaking spell on him. It’ll buy him a couple of days. What he really needs though, is to be over water.”

“I know, but—” 

“Valentine’s ship,” Jace cuts in. “It’s over water and warded to hell and back. The portal is still open; I could just go back there and pretend like nothing’s happened.”

Everything inside Alec balks at the thought. Having his bond go quiet again, just as he got it back to normal is unthinkable. The possibility wars against that of Jace getting caught by Aldertree, brought to the Silent City and locked away. It’s said that all magic fades when entering the Silent Brothers’ domain, even that which has been granted by the angels. Alec doesn’t even want to think of what such a place would do to their frayed  _ parabatai _ bond.

“Won’t Valentine’s men be suspicious?” he tries.

Jace shrugs. “Most of them are new. Lots of muscle, not the sharpest knives in the set. And I’m Valentine’s son. I can handle them.”

“And what if you can’t?”

“Then I’ll find a way out of there,” Jace replies. “Look, Alec, I realise this is risky, but what choice do we have? Besides, there are at least a couple of dozen Downworlders held prisoner on that ship. Valentine’s experimenting on some of them, and torturing the rest for fun. If I go back, I can try to get them out.”

“If there are Downworlders still alive on that ship, then I’m going with you,” Magnus says, in a tone of voice that doesn’t allow for arguments. “We’re getting everyone he’s taken out of there. Tonight. Let me just make a couple of calls.”

He walks off to the side, taking his phone out of his pocket.

“I don’t like this idea; we’d be going in blind,” Alec tells Jace quietly as the air around Magnus starts to shimmer, portals opening up and other warlocks stepping through.

“I don’t either,” Jace confesses. “But Magnus is right, we need to get the prisoners out—if Valentine’s men start getting antsy because he doesn’t return, it’s a good chance they’ll take their frustration out on them.” He sighs and pulls a hand through his hair, then looks back up at Alec and plasters a smile on his face. “Look at the bright side: delivering Valentine’s entire operation to the Clave makes for a  _ great _ defense plea.”

“Running a joint operation with the Warlocks without Clave approval doesn’t,” Alec counters. “We’ll be in deep shit. Both of us.”

Jace nods and takes a deep breath, clearly steeling himself up for something.

“Not if the official story is that you and Clary caught Valentine, and that I escaped before you could get to me,” he says.

For a long moment, Alec just stares at him. Then he narrows his eyes at Jace in warning, turns on his heel and walks over to where Valentine is lying on the ground.

“Stand up, I have a mission for you,” he tells Simon, who immediately flies to his feet.

“What do you need me to do?”

“I’m calling Izzy and telling her to set up a secure perimeter around the back entrance of the Institute,” Alec replies. “And then I’m going to ask Magnus to portal you, Valentine, Clary and Jocelyn straight into it.”

Simon’s eyes widen. “What? But I’m banned from the Institute! And what if Valentine wakes up and escapes? Aldertree will have me killed! Twice!”

“Magnus’ spell will keep him under. And you’ll have Izzy there to protect you.”

“But what if—”

“Simon,” Alec says, cutting him off with a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Now get yourself and Clary ready.”

To his relief, Simon doesn’t argue further. Alec leaves it to him to bicker with Clary about how best to move her mother, while he arranges the rest, a plan for the attack on the ship beginning to form in his head. He stays on the phone with Izzy as Simon and Clary take Jocelyn and Valentine through the portal, giving Magnus a nod once he has confirmation that everyone has arrived safely on the other side.

“All right, everyone, time to go,” Magnus says, closing the Institute portal with a wave of his hand. “Cloaking spells active for everyone except Alec and Jace. We want to keep Valentine’s men unaware of our presence for as long as possible.”

He walks over to the still open portal that leads to Valentine’s ship and turns back towards Alec, holding out his hand. “After you, Alexander.”

Alec gives him a small smile in reply and steps up to the front of the group. Jace comes to stand next to him, shoulders squared and hands clasped behind his back—every inch the soldier.

“You sure about this?” he asks Alec quietly.

Alec hesitates for a moment, and then sighs and holds up his hand between them. “We fight together, like we’re meant to,” he replies, holding Jace’s gaze to make sure he understands how important the words are to him. “Where thou goest, I will go.”

“Where thou diest, I will die,” Jace intones, raising his own hand and joining it to Alec’s. The hum of the bond grows stronger, more solid—breaths and heart rates syncing up, preparing them for battle.

“Let’s try not to die just yet, though,” Jace adds, letting go of Alec’s hand and grinning up at him. “We’re both too young, and I, at least, am way too pretty.”

Alec sends him a most unimpressed look and reaches for his stele. “You keep telling yourself that,” he says, and then focuses on drawing the shapeshifting rune into the skin on his forearm. The magic ripples over him, weirdly cold. Alec looks down at his hands, noting the differences from his own.

“How do I look?”

“Like one of my nightmares come to life,” Jace tells him honestly. “It’s good; it’ll fool them long enough.”

Alec clears his throat and nods, mentally preparing himself for the chilling reality of hearing Valentine’s voice when he opens his mouth.

“Then let’s do this.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love!
> 
> If you like this fic, please feel free to [reblog it on tumblr](http://actuallyredorchid.tumblr.com/post/168960547760/turning-the-tide-instead-of-going-back-to-the)


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